Mentioning a brother with a characteristic he has and its relation to backbiting
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Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. A questioner says: Backbiting is mentioning your brother with what he dislikes. Is it permissible for me to mention my brother with a characteristic he has, such as laziness, or that he is a follower of his desires, or other such characteristics, when it is a characteristic that everyone knows about him?
Answer:
No, do not speak of it among the people. Speaking of it among the people is backbiting. What is the benefit in it? However, if you say to him, "You have such and such, and you have such and such," by way of advice, or if you mention this to the judge so that he summons him and takes action against him, there is no harm in that. Yes, because this is forbidding what is wrong.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. A questioner says: Backbiting is mentioning your brother with what he dislikes. Is it permissible for me to mention my brother with a characteristic he has, such as laziness, or that he is a follower of his desires, or other such characteristics, when it is a characteristic that everyone knows about him?
Answer:
No, do not speak of it among the people. Speaking of it among the people is backbiting. What is the benefit in it? However, if you say to him, "You have such and such, and you have such and such," by way of advice, or if you mention this to the judge so that he summons him and takes action against him, there is no harm in that. Yes, because this is forbidding what is wrong.
Source
شرح كتاب المنتقى من أخبار المصطفى صلى الله عليه وسلم، بداية من باب الطهارة والسترة للطواف — islamhouse.com (1:02:14)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.